Happy Victoria Day! Bleu cheese stuffed burgers

It's the end of the world, as we know it...and I feel fine.

I'm sure I'm not the only one who had REM's music trilling through their brain yesterday morning as we (*gasp*) awoke and found life to be business as usual.

For those of you who don't know, or have forgotten, an end-of-the-world obsessed Harold Camping (an American radio evangelist) rejigged his calculations (notice the "re") and pronounced 21 May 2011 as the beginning of the end. Along with this was something like 200 million "true believers" were to be welcomed to the afterlife, and a tsunami-inducing earthquake was supposed to hit somewhere in the Pacific.

I'm not going to mention the dearth of reports mentioning people beamed up for their one-on-one with whomever they believe to be their maker. I've not read any evidence supporting a one-day more than 10-fold increase in average daily deaths on the 21st. I won't even hint that the earthquake's target area is known for regular seismic activity and the two *small* earthquakes that did happen didn't trigger tsunami warnings.

Really...It seemed like a pretty normal kind of day.

So while the nonagenarian preacher (with what I think of as an unhealthy obsession with the obliteration of the Earth) is "flabbergasted" that the end of days didn't come (or maybe he's just bewildered, that if it stealthily occurred, why the rapture didn't save him or apparently anyone he knew) the rest of the world ticks on...

And for those of us in Canada, it means getting on with our Victoria Day long weekend.

Victoria Day is Canada's unofficial start of summer. Those with cottages travel out to open them up for the season, gardens are turned, annuals are planted, and barbecues are fired up.

Well, just because I don't have a cottage, I've already taken care of my garden, the dahlias are in, and I don't have a barbecue doesn't mean I can't partake in the first long weekend of the season in appropriate fashion...

I suppose if I actually believed Saturday was the end of everything I may have planned a more appropriate menu...but really...if it's my last meal on Earth, I wouldn't have changed my game plan. I wouldn't have stopped eating red meat and bleu cheese and I wouldn't pour the gin down the drain.

For a last meal, why would I meander too far off my You Are What You Eat list? Why should I take on uncharacteristically trendy foodish airs or make a wholesale change in what I do in hopes that these last-minute changes in the final fleeting moments would change the inevitable?

So for this Victoria Day (or end of days day or not end of days day), my beginning of summer offering is a burger stuffed with bleu cheese and topped with red onions and fried mushrooms.

To me the key to a good homemade hamburger patty is to keep it as simple as possible.

Use ground chuck, fully speckled with flecks of white fat (regular ground beef, not lean or extra lean), salt and pepper. That's it: no eggs, no dried onion soup mix, no panade. For a bleu cheese-stuffed burger, look for a medium-firm cheese--I used Australia's King Island Dairy's Roaring Forties bleu--if you go with a softer cheese, you run the risk of it melting out of the burger while it cooks.

Top it however you wish. I chose dijon mustard, fried mushrooms and red onions. I will say if you happen to have any leftover bourgignon sauce in your freezer (as I tend to have) that works well with this burger.

Bleu cheese-stuffed burgers
Yield 4

Ingredients
500g (1lb) ground chuck, or medium ground beef
0.25tsp salt (or to taste)
0.5tsp pepper (or to taste)
4tsp medium-firm bleu cheese
four buns (hamburger, ciabbata, foccacia, etc)

Condiments and toppings (to taste)
Lettuce
Fried Mushrooms
Sliced red onions
Dijon mustard
Garlicky dill pickles

Method
Mix the salt, pepper and meat together. Divide into four equal portions.

Take each portion and form a ball, then push on one side to make a bowl- or a well-like shape. Add one teaspoon of cheese to the bottom of the well and close up the meat around the cheese. Press and form into a patty. Refrigerate until ready to cook.

Fry or grill until done. Serve on a bun and top as you please.

cheers!

jasmine

I'm a quill for hire!

Say Cheese: Stilton

Mmmm....cheese.

If you are a regular reader, you've picked up that I, in fact, am part mouse...which is probably a good explanation for my (ahem) towering stature. It's definitely in the running for my obsessive cheese cravings...well, that and My Dear Little Cardamummy adores cheesey goodness...come to think about it, so does My Equally Dear Not Little Carda..daddy (goodness, that makes him sound like some sort of mutant winged insect, doesn't it?...must come up with a different name at some point).

Alas their cheesey love doesn't seem to be as broad as mine. Cheddar and mozzerella, Swiss, cream cheese and cottage cheese are also good and satsify them quite nicely. Me, I gobble them all down, but also feta, halumi, brie, marscapone, anything studded (peppercorn, fruit, juniper, truffles), anything soused (whiskey, port, stout)...but I think above all, everything bleu.

So when our wonderful Haalo of Cook (almost) Anything At Least Once announced Say Cheese, I knew I'd be participating. Not only does it celebrate her 700th post, it also celebrates cheese. To participate, all we were asked to do was photograph and post about our favourite cheese. A non-cooking food event (Yay as I'm not in much of a cooking mood right now).

Hmm...easier said than done, I think. Asking me to narrow down my favourite cheese down to one is like asking me to weed my cookery library to 100 titles or select my most favourite pair of vampily-heeled shoes, or narrow down my list of foods to eat before you die to just 10. Yeah I can't just choose one.

So I chose a family of cheeses: Stilton.

Mmm...that blue-veined English dairy marvel. It's not for the feint of heart, but it's also not to be feared. I love its creaminess--both in colour and texture--and how the sharp blue veining is such a flavour contrast. It's a little salty and I suppose very hearty. One of my favourite uses is to mix it with butter and let it melt over a thick, juicy steak: sheer delirium.

Oh nummy nummy nummy.

But I recently found out there's more than blue out there. My preferred local swankyfooderie has one of the best (if not the best) cheese case in town...and there I found some of what I think of as the traditional Stilton's siblings.

There's White Stilton which is the cheese without the blue veining and fruit Stiltons which have puréed fruit injected into the plain cheese. I picked up some Apricot Stilton, but they also had a few wedges of cherry in the case. All are good--I'd say if I couldn't have blue, I'd go for the salty-sweetness of apricot. But by my palate, they are all good.

Haalo will be posting her round up in a few days, please check back to her site to see what other cheesey wonders people have posted about.

cheese! OOPS. I mean cheers!
jasmine

Mmm...Canada: Bacon, ramp and mushroom swirls

Earlier this month Jennifer and I issued a challenge to the foodblogging (and foodblog reading) world. We want to know what Canada tastes like to you. She's interested in all things sweet and I'm interested in the savoury side of life

In my entry for Jennifer's event, I stated that I think Canadian cuisine (savoury or sweet) developed through adapting family and cultural dishes using a mixture of indigenous and introduced foods. For that post, I made spiced blueberry-maple syrup that combined indigenous ingredients (maple syrup and wild blueberries) along with introduced flavours (cinnamon and black pepper).

For my own event, I'm keeping within that theme and expanding it a teeny bit.

In May a good friend of mine left a box of wild bounty she collected from her properties for me. My, those were some lovely looking ramps.

My idea was quite simple: work with flavours that play well together to bring out their oniony-garlicky best. Essentially what I think of as the basic tenet of cooking (Canadian or otherwise)-- simple homey cooking that's unfettered by fashion that uses what's easily available in a tasty way that's not only soothing but also makes you glad you're home.

In researching the various rampy treats, I came across a a recipe for a savoury ramp strudel. With a few tweaks (aided by a bit of a stromboli fascination), I decided to make savoury, swirly buns, using bacon, cheese and mushrooms. It sounds like a lot of elements, but really, it isn't. Plus, it combines those ingredients in a way I think of as Canadian in substance and spirit:

• Pigs were brought over fairly early in our history,
• Quebec has a great cheesemaking tradition, and we do make our own versions of American and European cheese
• Mushrooms are both harvested wild and cultivated
• Prairie wheat was used to mill my flour
• Herbs and spices from Europe and Asia

Again, this is a recipe that really doesn't need one. Okay...the bun part does. If you don't have a recipe you like, I made mine based on Edna Staebler's Neil's Harbour White Bread (and I used one-third the recipe).

The filling:

• streaky bacon, chopped into bits
• ramps (spring onions, green onions, globe onions or leeks will also do), green and white bits, chopped
• chopped mushrooms
• salt, pepper, thyme
• softened cream cheese (any soft or melty cheese will do)
• one beaten egg
• Parmesan cheese

Make the dough. During the first rise, fry the bacon until crisp and evacuate the bits to a bowl, leaving the fat in the pan. Fry the ramps and the mushrooms in the fat--add some oil if you need to. Season with salt, pepper and thyme. Reintroduce the bacon to pan and give it all a good stir. Remove contents to a bowl and set aside.

After the dough has doubled, role it out to a 24x30 cm (8"x12") rectangle. Smear with cream cheese and spread the rampy-baconny-mushroomy topping over the cheese. Roll the sheet up, so you have a 30-ish cm log. Slice in 12 rolls and place in a baking tin. Brush with beaten egg and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese. Let rise until doubled in size.

Heat oven to 200C/400F and bake for 10-15 minutes or until done.

Check back on Canada Day (01 July 2008) to see Mmm...Canada: The Savoury Edition's round-up)


cheers!
jasmine

Cheese, Gromit, Cheese...

As a run-up to Mmm...Canada,this week's posts will feature Canadian foods and food products. Today's post features Canadian Cheeses.

For those of you who aren't fully aware...I am part mouse. Yes, I know, I know...I don't look as if I should be a Mousketeer, nor do my dental features particularly resemble a certain Mr. Peter Pettigrew. But I do have a cerain affitinty for cheese.

Okay...When My Darling Michael and I saw Ratatouille he giggled away ...because (apparently) I get the same look on my face as Rémy did when we found a wonderful flavour combination.

Nothing wrong with that.

Anway...cheese. As I've mentioned a couple of times this month, Canada has a proud cheese-making history, and our cheeses are becoming better known. To celebrate and support cheese manufacturers, The Dairy Farmers of Canada hold The Canadian Cheese Grand Prix every other year--we have more than 200 cheese manufacturers who make more than 200 types of cheese. You can find more information about the Grand Prix, along with past winners here

I think my love of cheese is genetic. My mum is known as the little mousie at home because well...it's amazing how quickly a large hunkahunka cheesey goodness can disappear if she's in range. As for me, I listed cheese on my you are what you eat meme response and I try to have several types on the go in my fridge.

I'm lucky in that the swankyfooderie has a pretty decent cheese case. I can go in at any time and explore a new fromaggie treat from many places in Europe or North America. When I realised I'd be doing a post a day featuring Canadian food and food products, I headed over and bought a trio of Canadian cheeses:

Cantonnier
Made in Québec, this is a semi-soft, surface ripened washed-rind, cow's milk cheese with a pale, creamy texture. I'll admit that I could instantly tell when the cheese was unwapped...it is a bit whiffy. But the taste was simply lovely--mild and creamy it melts well but slices well, so it could easily find a home on a cheese tray or on a sandwich.


Prestige
Apologies: I tried looking up some information on this one, but I can't seem to find anything...which makes me wonder if it's from a very small manufacturer or if it's just misnamed. Oh well. This is a mild and very soft, almost melty goat's milk cheese. The cheese itself is snowy white and the thin rind is covered in ash. I could easily see myself using it in a mango or strawberry salad.

Madagascar Green Peppercorn Cheese
There were two things that made me buy this one...first was the green peppercorns. I love the juniper-like taste they have. Second...it was from Manitoba. Don't get me wrong, but I normally see Ontario and Québec cheeses in the cold case so when I saw something from Manitoba, I had to add it to my cart. It was my favourite of the three. The cheese is about as firm as a mozzerella and very mild, letting the peppercorn taste come through. Great for a swanky pizza, melted over chicken, or in a sandwich.

Actually...I prefer cheese on crackers...or with more cheese.

If you are interested in learning more about Canadian cheese, the dairy people have started a podcast series on cheese. But first go through the landing page...the current campaign is a "duets" concept...it's a scream...but I like cheesey things like that.


cheers!
jasmine

Edit: Well...I just found out that the 2008 Grand Prix has been postponed by a year...

Daring Bakers: Cheesecake Pops

Every so often something pops into my head as being so common sensicle that I immediately dismiss it because it's so obviously a good idea that someone else has done it and done it better.

Time travel to 1987: Enter the cheeseypop (a frozen cheesecake lolly) into my head...and immediately dismissed in the aforementioned way.

Time jump to 2008 and the April 2008 Daring Bakers challenge, co-hosted by Elle of Feeding My Enthusiasms and Deborah of Taste and Tell, Cheesecake pops. Chocolate-coated cheesecake balls on a stick.

Okay...my cheeseypops weren't choco-coated, but the idea is the same. A bite-sized cheesecake portion, frozen onto a stick...perfect for parties.

It's like the dessert version of cocktail weenies...except there isn't any dipping sauce...well there is, but it's frozen onto the cheesecake.

Our lovely hosts let us run free with the recipe to a certain extent--we could flavour it as we wanted and decorate it as we wanted. The only limitations were keeping the cheesecake untinted and keep the lolly to a two-ounce size.

OOPS...on both counts...sort of...

I don't know why, but I've been thinking of pina coladas a lot lately. Maybe it's a latent desire to be somewhere...anywhere...where I can just laze about with a book or two. I even went so far as to buy a frozen can of pina colada stuff...which I intend to use in something...possibly a drink.

So, apart from the rum, the two primary flavours are coconut and pineapple. I've never seen coconut cream cheese in the shops, but I have seen it in pineapple Needless to say, instead of buying a regular, cream cheese-flavoured brick for the challenge, I bought a pineapple-flavoured tubblette of cream cheese. Heck, it saves me from looking for pineapple flavouring. But instead of it being titanium white, it's more of a winter white--a creamy-peachy colour. Well, I'd never bought it before, so I didn't know...oh well...at least it wasn't pink like the strawberry or blue like the blueberry (or, I suspect green, like the chive flavoured) kinds.

The original recipe called for five bricks of cream cheese. Since I wasn't making it for a party and I don't have room in my freezer for 35 cheeseypops, I scaled the recipe down to one brick's worth. It was quite easy, since I pretty much do most things in grams and mls. I poured it into my smallest ceramic round baking thingie and it baked up really nicely--it took about 35 minutes to set properly. I also made a mental note that this quantity is perfect for a small cheesecake for two-four people.

When time came to make the little balls, I didn't have a two-ounce scoop and none of the shops I checked in had them. Knowing they had to be walnut-sized I got out my teaspoon and started scooping balling and impaling. I wound up with 12 lollies from one brick...which tells me they were a wee bit too small, but it just means there are more "servings."

I found stabbing each orb with a lolly stick oddly therapeutic. Maybe there's a hidden acupuncturist inside me, maybe in a previous life I was one of Vlad's armed guards. To my surprise, the sticks stuck and didn't tip to the side--nor did the cheesecake slide off when lifted.

After a couple of hours in the freezer, I dipped them in melted dark chocolate and then plunged them into bowl of shredded coconut, left over from the March Challenge, and popped them back into the freezer.

Yummy yummy yummy...and the perfect size (for me). The pineapple wasn't too strongly flavoured, but it was nice with the coconut.

Which got me to wondering...what about cheesey kebabs? Two little cheesecake blobs on either side of a strawberry or pineapple chunks...frozen, of course... or what about doing these with savoury garlic cream cheese (I do like the garlic bonbons at my favourite chocolatrie)...

Nah, it's probably been done before...

If you're interested in making Cheesecake Pops, read Lemon Pi's post (I really like the little lolly holders).

To read what the other DBs did with this challenge, take a meander through our blogroll.

cheers!
jasmine

A hunk-a-stout-a cheesy love

Every once in a while something so bizarrely beautiful stops me in my tracks.

While in the SwankyFooderie, just prior to joining the queue that led me down the bread bunny path, I was snooping about for a nice bit of cheese. I'd already settled on some Stilton and Roquefort, but I wanted something that would go with the beef and Guinness stew I planned for St. Patrick's day.

Normally I'd have gone for a nice old cheddar, but this hunk-a-stout-a cheesy love caught my eye. I'd never heard of Guinness Cheddar before, but its terrazzo-like appearance was all I needed to add it to my growing armload of treasures. Besides, what's a little more Guinness to the stew?

Well...if I had remembered to put it in, I'm sure it would have been wonderful...but my sieve-like memory left the lovely hunk of Irish goodness in my drawer. Now, would I forget about Jonathan Rhys Meyers or Bono or Ciarán Hinds? No. Nonononononononono.

But forget it, I did...until I cobbled together tonight's supper--a simple sandwich made with deli-sliced Angus roast beef with sautéed garlicky mushrooms and onions (with a bit of instant beef broth, in lieu of a proper gravy or jus) on a nice soft roll. The only thing that was missing was a bit of cheese...and then I remembered the the hunkahunka.

Because I really, really like Guinness and I really, really like cheese, I was worried that this would be one of those things that was better left in the concept stage...Boy, was I wrong. For me, it works--and nicely--but it won't be everyone's pint of pleasure. It's a crumbly cheese that easily breaks off into barley-laced little hunks of cheddary goodness--which makes it great of sneaking little snacky pieces and crumbling some in a nice beefy stew or soup.

Before it disappears in the name of "just a little snack" I must see what sort of yummy goodness can be had with it...

cheers!
jasmine